Biography
A key figure in the Southern soul movement of the late 1960s, Spooner Oldham frequently recorded with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section during dates at FAME Studios. Those dates yielded landmark singles such as Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” Clarence Carter’s “Slip Away,” and Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally” and “Funky Broadway.” Around the same time he formed a songwriting alliance with guitarist Dan Penn that produced the enduring soul classics “Cry Like a Baby,” “I’m Your Puppet,” and “It Tears Me Up.” After the peak years of Southern soul, Oldham shifted to Los Angeles, where an attempt at a solo career gave way to steady session work that included dates with Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, and Bob Seger during the 1970s and a long-running association with Neil Young. In later decades he continued performing alongside contemporaries while also accepting invitations from indie artists such as Cat Power, Frank Black, the Drive-By Truckers, and the Mountain Goats, and he revisited his Muscle Shoals origins on the 2024 Texas album The Muscle Shoals Sessions.
Born Dewey Lindon Oldham, Jr. on June 14, 1943, in Sheffield, Alabama, Spooner Oldham spent his childhood in the rural community of Center Star. His father encouraged an early love of music that led the boy to sing in church and pick up the guitar. At age four an accident occurred when he reached for a pan on the stove; a spoon struck his right eye, leaving him blind in that eye and giving him the nickname “Spooner,” which remained with him for life.
Piano lessons taken while he was in junior high steered Oldham toward the keyboard chair in the local group Hollis Dixon & the Keynotes. He enrolled at State Teachers College from 1961 to 1962, yet his stronger interest lay in R&B and rock & roll, and he soon connected with like-minded musicians Rick Hall and Billy Sherrill. He moved to Florence and began playing sessions at Spar Music and at Hall’s FAME Studios, appearing on Jimmy Hughes’s “Steal Away,” the first single issued by FAME Records, and on Arthur Alexander’s 1962 R&B hit “You Better Move On.”
By the mid-1960s Oldham had begun writing songs with guitarist Dan Penn. Their earliest chart success came with “Let’s Do It Over,” which Joe Simon carried to number 13 R&B in 1965. Oldham also remained active as a session player, supplying the churchy organ on Percy Sledge’s 1966 smash “When a Man Loves a Woman.” That breakthrough led to further dates with Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, Clarence Carter, James & Bobby Purify, and Sledge.
Oldham relocated to Memphis in 1967 and resumed his partnership with Penn. Their biggest success of the period was “Cry Like a Baby,” which the Alex Chilton-led Box Tops turned into a Top Ten single featuring Oldham on organ. The pair also wrote “Take Me (Just as I Am),” a hit for Solomon Burke, and “A Woman Left Lonely,” recorded by both Charlie Rich and Janis Joplin.
His Memphis stay proved brief; he headed to Los Angeles at the close of 1969. There he worked regularly at Producers Workshop Studios and cut his own album, Pot Luck, in 1972. Oldham soon integrated himself into the emerging Southern California singer/songwriter community, contributing to albums by Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers, Linda Ronstadt, Rita Coolidge, Gene Clark, Jackson Browne, Stephen Stills, JJ Cale, and Harry Nilsson.
In the late 1970s Oldham settled in Nashville and began a lasting collaboration with Neil Young that commenced with Comes a Time in 1978. He went on to appear on Old Ways, Harvest Moon, Silver & Gold, and Prairie Wind. He also backed Bob Dylan during the final phase of Dylan’s Christian period, touring with him and playing on Saved. A partnership with John Prine yielded Aimless Love in 1984 and A John Prine Christmas in 1994.
Throughout the 1980s Oldham remained a sought-after sideman; during that decade Steve Wariner revived the Penn collaboration “Lonely Women Make Good Lovers,” originally recorded by Bob Luman in 1972. Oldham and Dan Penn reunited for a 1991 show at New York’s Bottom Line that revived their joint career. They both performed on Arthur Alexander’s 1993 comeback album Lonely Just Like Me and later toured as a duo, with one concert preserved on the 1999 release Moments from This Theater.
While maintaining an active performing career of his own, Oldham continued session work. Jewel’s multi-platinum Pieces of You became his most prominent credit of the 1990s, yet the 2000s found him working with a wide array of artists. He appeared on two Frank Black albums in the middle of the decade, joined the Drive-By Truckers for their 2007 The Dirt Underneath tour, and played on The Scene of the Crime, a Bettye LaVette album featuring the Truckers, before recording with Amos Lee and Cat Power in 2008.
Inductions followed: the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2008, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a sideman in 2009, and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2014. Further credits include Keith Richards’ Crosseyed Heart in 2015, Sheryl Crow’s Threads in 2019, the Mountain Goats’ Dark in Here in 2021, and the 2024 Texas collection The Muscle Shoals Sessions.
Born Dewey Lindon Oldham, Jr. on June 14, 1943, in Sheffield, Alabama, Spooner Oldham spent his childhood in the rural community of Center Star. His father encouraged an early love of music that led the boy to sing in church and pick up the guitar. At age four an accident occurred when he reached for a pan on the stove; a spoon struck his right eye, leaving him blind in that eye and giving him the nickname “Spooner,” which remained with him for life.
Piano lessons taken while he was in junior high steered Oldham toward the keyboard chair in the local group Hollis Dixon & the Keynotes. He enrolled at State Teachers College from 1961 to 1962, yet his stronger interest lay in R&B and rock & roll, and he soon connected with like-minded musicians Rick Hall and Billy Sherrill. He moved to Florence and began playing sessions at Spar Music and at Hall’s FAME Studios, appearing on Jimmy Hughes’s “Steal Away,” the first single issued by FAME Records, and on Arthur Alexander’s 1962 R&B hit “You Better Move On.”
By the mid-1960s Oldham had begun writing songs with guitarist Dan Penn. Their earliest chart success came with “Let’s Do It Over,” which Joe Simon carried to number 13 R&B in 1965. Oldham also remained active as a session player, supplying the churchy organ on Percy Sledge’s 1966 smash “When a Man Loves a Woman.” That breakthrough led to further dates with Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, Clarence Carter, James & Bobby Purify, and Sledge.
Oldham relocated to Memphis in 1967 and resumed his partnership with Penn. Their biggest success of the period was “Cry Like a Baby,” which the Alex Chilton-led Box Tops turned into a Top Ten single featuring Oldham on organ. The pair also wrote “Take Me (Just as I Am),” a hit for Solomon Burke, and “A Woman Left Lonely,” recorded by both Charlie Rich and Janis Joplin.
His Memphis stay proved brief; he headed to Los Angeles at the close of 1969. There he worked regularly at Producers Workshop Studios and cut his own album, Pot Luck, in 1972. Oldham soon integrated himself into the emerging Southern California singer/songwriter community, contributing to albums by Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers, Linda Ronstadt, Rita Coolidge, Gene Clark, Jackson Browne, Stephen Stills, JJ Cale, and Harry Nilsson.
In the late 1970s Oldham settled in Nashville and began a lasting collaboration with Neil Young that commenced with Comes a Time in 1978. He went on to appear on Old Ways, Harvest Moon, Silver & Gold, and Prairie Wind. He also backed Bob Dylan during the final phase of Dylan’s Christian period, touring with him and playing on Saved. A partnership with John Prine yielded Aimless Love in 1984 and A John Prine Christmas in 1994.
Throughout the 1980s Oldham remained a sought-after sideman; during that decade Steve Wariner revived the Penn collaboration “Lonely Women Make Good Lovers,” originally recorded by Bob Luman in 1972. Oldham and Dan Penn reunited for a 1991 show at New York’s Bottom Line that revived their joint career. They both performed on Arthur Alexander’s 1993 comeback album Lonely Just Like Me and later toured as a duo, with one concert preserved on the 1999 release Moments from This Theater.
While maintaining an active performing career of his own, Oldham continued session work. Jewel’s multi-platinum Pieces of You became his most prominent credit of the 1990s, yet the 2000s found him working with a wide array of artists. He appeared on two Frank Black albums in the middle of the decade, joined the Drive-By Truckers for their 2007 The Dirt Underneath tour, and played on The Scene of the Crime, a Bettye LaVette album featuring the Truckers, before recording with Amos Lee and Cat Power in 2008.
Inductions followed: the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2008, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a sideman in 2009, and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2014. Further credits include Keith Richards’ Crosseyed Heart in 2015, Sheryl Crow’s Threads in 2019, the Mountain Goats’ Dark in Here in 2021, and the 2024 Texas collection The Muscle Shoals Sessions.
Albums
Live
